One of the top questions I get from my customers who routinely watch the Ontario electricity market (besides asking me for my crystal ball prediction for 2017 price performance!) is “What causes price volatility in Ontario”? This has been especially true over the last months. ...

Nearly a quarter million Canadians earn their own bread by working in the food and beverage industry. It’s the largest manufacturing employer in the country. Not surprisingly, many managers in this sector are as serious about taking wasted energy dollars off the table as they...

My colleague Natalie Manzarpour and I presented our seasonal market update webinar in early April. We had so much information to cover, we unfortunately couldn’t make it through the many questions we were asked. Let’s get to some of those questions from the webinar. The...

Two weeks ago, my colleague Natalie Manzarpour and I presented our Q1 Market Update Webinar. We discussed how electricity markets have been impacted by new factors affecting supply, and in turn have resulted in price spikes, volatility and increases year over year. A warm winter...

On March 2, 2017, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced sweeping changes to Ontario’s electricity sector, dubbed “The Fair Hydro Plan”. What does this new regulation mean for Ontario ratepayers, and who will reap the benefits? Let’s break it down.

Unity is what you get when all the energy generated by a power source is consumed by one or more loads (anything that runs on electricity). Unity also is known as a power factor of 1, and it doesn’t happen very often. We have some options for you to improve your power factor.

With the recent expansion of the Ontario Industrial Conservation Initiative (ICI) to 1MW consumers, an estimated 2,000 companies now qualify for Class A status. I recently participated in a webinar where we talked about how customers can manage their Global Adjustment costs.

Maintain a power factor above 90% and there’s no harm and no foul; fall below, though, and you’ll find yourself sitting in the penalty box. And the worst part is that no one even told you that you’re in the penalty box, how you got there and what your penalty will cost you.

For Class A customers who want to save on energy costs, it’s a bit like whitewater rafting: the rest of the summer could be a gentle downward drift of the mercury or a series of dramatic temperature spikes like shooting a Class V rapid.